How much ink really remains in your body when you make a tattoo? This German study reveals it

Recent research has identified the exact percentage of ink that penetrates our skin after a tattoo.

During the tattoo process, the needle drips the skin about 100 times per second, depositing the ink to a depth between 1.5 and 2 millimetersreaching the dermis, the intermediate layer of the skin, but how much does this ink actually penetrates this ink?

In a new studythe researchers were able to monitor how the liquid components of the tattoo ink in the body behave.

The scientists of the German Federal Institute for risk assessment, or BFR, were amazed to learn that Only 20% of the tattoo ink actually penetrates the skinmuch less than previously thought. Most of the ink is expelled as the tattooed skin heals.

The results of our study will allow in the future to evaluate the health risks deriving from the tattoo more accurately.

The study

Scholars tattooed 24 participants in the study with several Tattoo inks available on the market (14 black, 10 red) enriched with three “trace” substances that the researchers have followed throughout the body.

Samples of urine and blood were taken before, during and after the tattoo sessions, which generally lasted 3 and a half hours.

THE Metabolites were detected in the bloodstream shortly after the start of the tattoo. The researchers determined that the substances are metabolized differently when they are injected compared to when they are ingested.

One of the markers, in particular, has been metabolized in other compounds more frequently than expected, which has been attributed to certain enzymes in skin cells.

The researchers monitored the amount of ink of the tattoo used in each session by weighing the ink bottles before and after and examining the ink residues left on the needles, role and dirty gloves.

This is how they managed to understand that Only about a fifth of the color ended up in the skin.

In previous research, it has been noted that the pigments of the tattoo ink can accumulate in the lymph nodespotentially exposing the immune system to chemicals that can be considered toxic.